According to Hill, documentaries have influenced reality TV in several interelated ways. The first method involves mimmicking the shaky/raw appearance of hand held cameras so that the audience is presented with a veuristic, fly-on-the-wall perspective of real wold events unfolding in front of them in real time. This effect may not have been intentional at first, but producers of reality TV picked up on it and intenionally exploited the technique later on.
Reality TV also borrowed the concept of using a narrator to guide the viewer through the content while splicing together chronologically seperated events into a continuous stream to create the impression of real time continuity.
Hill also found it worth noting that just as documentaries have influenced reality TV, reality TV has influenced documentaries. Hill points out that as reality TV has grown more popular, documentaries have been forced to become more entertaining and less informative. On the surface this development appears counterproductive to the original purpose of documentaries, which is to educate viewers. However, it has made documentaries more accessible to wider audiences, and as both genres continue to learn from their mistakes and evolve we may see both genres find better ways to balance entertainment and enlightenment.
Hill, A. (2005) The rise of
reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality
TV: Audiences and
Popular Factual Television.
(pp. 97). Oxon:
Routledge.
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